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2014.02.11 - Conductive LLC
Conductive, LLC. It's a new start-up company in a small semi-industrial park on the outskirts of the Bronx, promising custom small-batch wire applications. They're one of the few places this side of Germany that Pepper's found that says they can make some of the specialty requests on Tony's 'shopping list', including for those defensive items he's developing for SHIELD. Now, Pepper might be able to wrangle CEOs and COOs from just about anywhere in the world, but she will /never/ successfully distinguish 20-gauge stranded copper from shielded solid core. It all just makes her eyes want to cross. So, as part of the standard process of learning about the new company before starting to place orders with them, she asked Tony to accompany her. If anyone could tell at a glance that they're going to be able to make those ... things that Tony wants, it's Tony himself. And, well, when she'd mentioned to Maria where they'd be going, a SHIELD liaison was 'volunteered' to go along as well. So, the Stark Industries car having pulled up to the so far nondescript building at ten minutes to ten am, Pepper glances at her wristwatch as she looks around. SHIELD agents aren't usually in the habit of being late, but she still won't take anything for granted. Tony is standing next to Pepper, wearing aviators before ten AM and looking at his watch. He looks around, smug look of satisfaction on his face. "Didn't Coulson say he was going to meet us here at nine-forty-five sharp? That's why I wanted us here five minutes late just so I could watch his jaw muscles tense." he glances around, sighing, "JARVIS - confirm my one thirty at the Hall, would you please?" - there's something mysterious about that request, precisely because it wasn't to Pepper. The AI confirms a moment later. He sighs and shakes his head. "So..do we or don't we tattle on Coulson to Fury and watch that particular vaudeville performance?" Across the street from Conductive, LLC is a large repair shop specialized in working on large vehicle and industrial equipment. Among the multitude of vehicles in its large front lot there's an old, beat up moving truck. Inside the moving truck Button is sitting at a small desk, watching two monitors receiving feed from tiny cameras hidden on the outside of the truck. As she monitors the camera feeds she looks over her shoulder slightly and asks one of the robots standing behind her, "Panic? We're sure that their showing off the new superconductor materials today, right?" The smaller of the two robots, only measuring about 6 feet in height answers Button with, "Yes Mistress." to which Button responds, "And you couldn't tell me that the demonstration was for Tony Stark??" Panic droops his head, looking as ashamed as a robot can look, "You did not ask for information on the clients, Mistress... My apologies." Agent Coulson is sprinting into the room. He's practically doing parkour. The doors open up and he runs inside. He pants a little and says "Sorry I'm late. Lola got a scratch, so I had to stop for a moment and cover it up with a red sharpie." He holds a bag in the air and hands it to Potts. He says "I brought a snack, by the way. I hope you like Gryos. We all know how Mr. Stark is when he's hungry." Tony's checking with JARVIS about some Hall or other gets Pepper to toss him a look with her eyebrows drawn together, but she doesn't mention it. Not yet. She'll give him the third degree later. And she definitely shakes her head no at his suggestion of tattling on Coulson to Fury. Any chance she can get of avoiding Fury, the better. Agent Coulson's rather unusual arrival elicits a surprised blink from her while she accept the bag of gyros. "... thank you, Agent Coulson. Should we start inside and get the dog and pony show started?" She gestures toward the semi-industrial building behind them, notably the glass doors with the name 'Conductive, LLC' on them. She'd scheduled the meet for ten am but told Tony nine-thirty, knowing that herding all of the necessary cats might take at least that long. And she's being proven correct. Again. Tony Stark looks at Coulson and smirks, "I don't turn into Justin Hammer when I'm hungry, if that's what you're implying." he says, before looking at Pepper, "Yes, let's get this done and over with. See if they got the ingredients for my recipe." Meanwhile, inside the moving-truck-turned-observation-post the bigger of the two robots sitting behind Button says,"My legs are cramping. Are we there yet? Is it time to have fun? Can I get out, pleeeeeeaseeeee?" And the ten foot bot is indeed squatting in a way that would be very tiring and awkward for a human being. Annoyed Button actually spins her chair around to glare at the robot, "You were never programmed with pain receptors, only damage sensors. You can not cramp Delete! Do I have to adjust your personality profiles again!? Just be quiet! I'll tell you when its time to get out." Then she turns around to look at the monitors again, mumbling to herself, "The redhead is Stark's secretary, shouldn't be a problem to deal with. But who's the suit?" "Well, that's because you didn't blend the batter correctly." Leopold Fitz presents Jemma Simmons with a baleful expression as he follows her lead. Over his shoulder is a case held aloft by a durable Teflon strap. "I followed the instructions, exactly as it was on the recipe." "Oh, Fitz." Jemma smiles sweetly at her counterpart, while reaching to touch his shoulder. "The culinary art isn't something you can approach like an engineer. You have to feel your way through it." "But... I am an engineer." FitzSimmons. The nickname has started spreading beyond the boundaries of S.H.I.E.L.D. labs, and it's understandable why. Their reassignment to the Metropolis area has sent a ripple through the ranks, centered upon their collective genius and apparent attachment at the proverbial hip. The two agents are following at the rear, working hard to catch up with Tony and Pepper specifically. However, it's Agent Coulson to whom they both seem to be looking, with no shortage of quiet curiosity. Coulson sees his two fellow agents and approaches them. "Fitz, Simmons. It's a pleasure to see you here." He turns to Tony and Pepper Potts. He says "So do you know exactly what it is we're looking for?". He then puts a hand on his chin and says "Say...why don't we just deploy the DWARVEs? They could find in half the time we could." Pepper Potts smiles and nods hello to the two scientists, apparently her temper the last time they saw her completely gone again. Wait, no, not completely gone. Coulson's suggestion to treat this company like a suspect or crime scene or some such elicits an unimpressed look. "Or perhaps we can simply walk in the front door and introduce ourselves? We're here to see if this company will be able to manufacture some of the items we need, no to immediately treat them like criminals." With that, she turns to open the glass door for everyone else to enter, hefting her teal bag a little bit higher on to her shoulder. Tony Stark smiles as Fitz and Simmons make their appearance, "Fantastic," he says, amused, "the Bobsey Twins are here. Good. They can see me at work." he looks at Coulson, "or you could let me take a crack at it and let me do it in half the time?" he looks at Pepper and smiles, winking, and steps through. "Okay, time to make the donuts!" Button smiles ever so slightly as people start making their way into the company across the streets from her observation post. As she reaches out to hit a button on her console she says, "Delete, if you dare stand up before I tell you to I swear I'm going to take you apart and sell you for scrap metal, do you understand me?" The reason for this warning is apparent almost immediately. when she presses the button she was reaching for the top of the moving truck immediately starts opening up like a reverse garage door. Delete shivers a bit as the light hits him, clearly ready to get out of what for him are the cramped quarters of the truck but he meekly says, "Yes Mistress. I'll wait until you say its OK to play." "Thank you, sir," comes Simmons' answer to Agent Coulson. When Coulson mentions the DWARVEs, Fitz almost immediately brightens, and is halfway through retrieving the case from where it's perched over his shoulder. This, however, earns a disdainful look from Simmons, along with a pointed nod toward Pepper as she makes her case. Shrugging the case back over his shoulder, Fitz scowls at Simmons before turning that look right back upon Tony. "We're not 'twins'." Simmons rolls her eyes and turns to follow Pepper. "Of course, Miss Potts, we will defer to whatever decisions are made by our superiors." And as she smiles sweetly at Pepper (while blatantly admitting that the chain of command will trump Pepper's recommendation, even if she agrees with it), her eyes drift toward that moving truck. "Oh. That's odd." Thinking nothing over it, Simmons tucks a stray hair behind her ear and turns about to follow into the building. Coulson defends his position "I wasn't saying we should strip search the place. I'm just suggesting that the DWARVes could find it faster. We'd ask permission and whatnot first." He then says "So, we're looking for a superconducting wire, yes?" Pepper Potts follows Simmons' look toward the 'odd' moving truck, making quick mental notes about the vehicle's identifying marks and license plates (if she can read them from here, she's not Barton after all). But then she returns Tony's smile and waits for everyone else to enter the lobby of the little start-up company, answering Coulson's question as he steps past. "No, Agent Coulson, we're visiting this company to see if their manufacturing equipment and processes are capable of producing superconducting wire. Though I do suspect that they'll have at least a few samples already made up for us to examine." Tony Stark looks around the reception area, "I know they have the equipment. My question is if they have the expertise to produce what I need to the specifications I have. I don't need a superconductive wire that can't handle the load I put through it because it fell to the negative side of spec that day." he glances to Fitz and Simmons, "I also know that you aren't twins. When you get back to the Argus, you might want to do an exhaustive search for twins in pop culture reference, because you're going t hear them regardless. The Bobsey Twins, the Doublemint Twins, Fred and George, Tomax and Xamot..you get the point." a beat pause, "It's okay though - I kid because I care." he looks to Coulson, "Right, Agent?" After everyone has walked into the building Button floats up out of the moving truck followed by Delete and Panic. Except Delete and Panic don't float out, they walk out instead. The two robots cross the street, even stopping to look both ways before doing so, and make their way to Conductive LLC while Button floats silently above them about 10 feet up in the air. Today Button has dressed for business in a leather cats suit and a domino mask with flared corners, an outfit that makes her looks somewhat like a mini-me for Catwoman. Her knee high boots and the glove she wears on her left hand both look like they are made of some sort of flexible metal given the way they reflect light and the fact that they're somewhat thicker than is normal for either of those articles of clothing. While the trio moves towards the building Button is tapping away at her left wrist and after a few minutes she announces, "OK boys, I'm now tapped into the the building's security system. Too bad their R&D projects are on stand alone systems not connected to the wi-fi or the internet..." "Oh." Simmons brightens at Tony. "Right! Like the Olsen Twins." Now it is Fitz who rolls his eyes. "Great reference, Simmons," he murmurs, before casting a look that mixes worried with scientific interest. "What kind of load, exactly...?" Simmons takes a few steps closer to Agent Coulson and Pepper, looking about the reception area as they draw near. "Soooo... Hello." She smiles again, though this whole thing has her feeling a bit nervous. Why, she can't quite place. "Fitz is going to have it out here. This sort of stuff is rrrrright up his alley. Unfortunately, unless they're using some kind of advanced chemical coating or, Heaven forbid, a kind of biomatter agent, I'm afraid I won't be of much use." Beat. "Although... if by 'superconductor' we are talking about the obvious insinuations, you know, wire that can handle ten times the load at one half the size, we might be surprised to find some kind of unique liquid metal coating. Some kind of compound we've never seen before." Beat, and she looks between Pepper and Coulson before whispering, "But, wouldn't they have some kind of permits for that??' Yeah, Simmons and her nervous chatter? Getting way ahead of things here. Coulson says "I don't see why you'd need a permit to have superconductors. I'm pretty sure it's legal to own things /we/ don't know about, as long as it's used safely and isn't created from something like Asgardian tech." He then walks towards the front door. He opens it up and looks are given to Simmons and Potts. He says "Ladies first, please?". He then looks at Tony and says "You don't count, Mr. Stark." Well, technically Stark /does/ count. He's very good at math. But we all know what he means. Pepper Potts just shakes her head slightly at Simmons' nattering, clearly amused, then once everyone's inside she steps to the front of the little group again to greet the Conductive people waiting for them. Pleasantries are thankfully quick, and then they're given guest badges and safety goggles and led through to the main manufacturing floor. And sure enough, there are samples of about six kinds of superconductive wire there waiting to be examined, probably about a quarter of a mile of each. Tony Stark is the kind of guy who accepts his badge and goggles, then sticks the badge in his pocket, sets down the goggles at the earliest opportunity and puts on his aviators instead. If anyone in the group with him shoots a look at him, he just smiles at them and keeps the shades on. Once the trio outside has crossed the street Button separates from the two robots, "Remember boys, keep them distracted as long as you can." Is the last piece of instruction she gives the two of them before heading for one of the side doors of the manufacturer's building. Coming down to a soft landing right in front of the door and pulls out a magcard from a pocket. Plugging the cable attached to the magcard into a micro usb port in the bottom of her left glove she then swipes the card through the door's scan pad, taps at her glove for a few seconds then swipes the card again and, presto! The door pops open and in she goes, eyes partially on the tiny display that's part of her gauntlet and partially on where she's going physically. On the other side of the building Delete and Panic walk up to the outside wall of the manufacturing floor and have a quick discussion. Panic: "Delete break the wall open!" Delete: "But hitting a wall hurts Panic!" Panic: "The Mistress already told you you don't have pain sensors! And besides, you're a lot harder than a simple concrete wall, hit it already you big wuss!" Delete: "OK, but it still hurts." *THUMP THUMP* Delete punches first one set of finger, then the other into the wall then pulls to the sides as if parting a curtain. And off come to big chunks of concrete and plaster, leaving the two robots exposed to the view of everyone inside, cannons already popping out of their backs to train on the people inside. Panic says, "Hello everyone. Please just give us the new superconductor materials you've been working on and no one has to get hurt! Thank you very much!" Both robots have voices that make them sound like your average 10 year old boy. Fitz and Simmons share a look, before reaching into their respective lab coats and retrieving their own goggles. These, of course, were designed by Fitz. and are equipped with some of the most sophisticated examination gear he could cram into them. Plus, they look badass as hell. For a nerdy guy, Fitz sure seems to have a good handle on design. "How do I look?" asks Simmons. "State of the badass art," replies Fitz, before glancing Tony's way. "Eh?" he asks, nodding Simmons way, before reaching out and giving Stark a rugby smack on the arse. Fortunately (?), there's not much time for a response. The thudding sound draw both Fitz and Simmons' eyes to the wall, and when it comes tearing open, each of them gasp and draw back a few steps, slack jawed. Agent Coulson himself wonders if he should use his SHIELD issue sunglasses or the goggles. I mean, he's a secret agent. He looks great in shades. However, unlike Tony, he wimps out and wears safety goggles. Because, like a secret agent, he feels compelled to follow rules. He still looks good in goggles, however. He leans back and lets people smarter than he (namely, Fitz and Simmons) do their work. And that's when he hears a thumping behind him. He quickly moves out of the way, when suddenly, a giant friggin' robot tears through the wall. Coulson reaches for his colt .45 pistol and decides to fire at the robot. Coulson shoots first. Pepper Potts is also putting on the supplied goggles and giving Tony a look that all but says aloud, 'Figures', and then looking as surprised as the SHIELD techies when two robots abruptly rip through a nearby wall. The company employees start screaming and scattering, and Pepper tosses the safety goggles aside, gesturing at Fitz and Simmons to flee toward the entrance they just came from. "Go!" And then she looks at Tony, one hand hovering over the medallion on her bag. Tony hears the sound of the wall being pulled open and looks over. He sees the two mechanical constructs standing there demanding superconductors. Immediately within his head a sheet of legal paper pops up with a check list on it: 10:00AM - Kick Mechanical Ass 10:30AM - Meet about Superconductors 11:15AM - Lunch (Spago, maybe?) 1:00PM - Meet with Superman (HOJ) Tony takes off the aviators (they're like 600 bucks, no way are they getting broke) he takes two steps back from the group, "JARVIS - Prep the Bugatti. Emergency Protocol." he looks to Pepper and Coulson, motioning to Fitz and Simmons, "Coulson, protect the Olsens! Pepper -" he says and grins to his PA - "Suit Up. You got the small one. I'll take care of the big one." He comes out the way he came in, and exits the building heading to where the sleek, dark red Bugatti Veyron sits *OOC Note: (It looks like this: http://www.3dm3.com/tutorials/bugatti_veyron/bugatti_veyron_hires.jpg) except the black is actually gold. Tony goes to the front of the car, and hits the Bugatti plate on the grill. It slides up, and a familiar torso slides out. He grabs it and holds it to his chest. An improvement on the Mark IV, It begins to expand over him and locking into place. It looks less sparse than the old Mark IV, and more like a regular suit of the Iron Man armor. Agent Coulson's shots are dead on, just like one would expect from an Agent of SHIELD. There's only one problem as the bullets hit Delete lots of sparks spang off him and patches of his paint fall off. Instead of retaliating the neon green lights that pass for his eyes move sideways in Panic's direction, "PANIC! PANIC! He ruined my paint job! The Mistress is going to disassemble me! Can I shot him as preemptive revenge!?" Regardless of where Delete's 'eyes' are his two laser cannons are now actively trained on Coulson. On the other hand one of Panic's cannons is covering the FitzSimmons and the other is covering Tony and Pepper. "Nonono! The Mistress has only allowed us to use potential lethal force against costumed superheroes! But he did ruin your paint job... Just thump him. That'll show him!" Elsewhere Button is making her way to the main R&D lab, taking advantage of the distraction the bots are causing as well as being able to use the security cameras to keep track of people movement on her gauntlet's display. Panic doesn't seem to care much about what Stark thinks is the plan, instead running after him while Delete starts stalking after Coulson. As he runs Panic is shouting at the top of his speaker volume,"MISTRESS! MISTRESS! THEY'RE RUNNING AWAY! AND MR. STARK HAS HIS SUIT!" As soon as he notices that the Iron Man suit is actually available he opens up with his laser cannons, trying to take out the Bugatti before the Iron Man suit is fully deployed. "Simmons!" Fitz calls to the woman, beckoning her to scramble behind and just beneath a conveyor belt while throwing his case to the ground. The latches come open, and the case pops open. Of the many things inside, one of them is a sophisticated pistol. Simmons gasps, and looks at Fitz with wide eyes. "What's... that stupid Night Night Gun?" "Pistol," he corrects her. "Night Night Pistol." He's already at work, snatching up items from within the case and ejecting the glowing blue magazine. "I don't think dendrotoxin is going to do anything against--" "Not dendrotoxin!" interrupts Fitz. "Gonna make some field mods." "FIELD mods!!" Simmons twists about, shooting Pepper and apologetic look. They should have run when they had the chance, not bolted themselves underneath a conveyor belt! Agent Coulson's bullets don't seem to have the desired effect. I mean, they do seem to be doing a modicum of damage to the machine, but are clearly not lethal. He proceeds to run for cover....under a conveyor belt. He says to Fitz and Simmons "Are you ok?" He notices that they're modifying a night-night pistol. He can't be sure what they're doing, but he's certain they have the right idea. They usually do. He says "I need bigger guns...." Coulson's signature weapon, the CR12, also known as Coulson's revenge, was usually stored inside Lola's trunk. If he could get to that, he could deal a lot of damage to the enemy robots. On the other hand, he needed to protect civilians firsthand. He looks to Potts and hands her his firearm. He says "Take this. You can fire a gun, right?". He says "Will you two be fine for five minutes or less?" Button has found what she's looking for by now. Sitting at one of the computers in the the R&D lab she starts tapping away with the speed typical of someone very familiar with working at high speeds on a computer. While she works she talks to the robots through their commlink, "Delete, forget about the SHIELD Agent that ruined your paint! Go help Panic with Stark. Panic! You better not be shooting at the car, stop Stark from putting that suit on!" Delete stops his stalking of Coulson with a surely "Yes Mistress. But he ruined my paint job." but doesn't completely obey his orders. Before he goes running down the hallways after Tony and Panic, leaving large holes in the walls every time he comes to a doorway, he grabs the toolbox Tony put his glasses on and tosses it at Coulson. Crushing the aviators in the process. Panic is doing justice to his name, "He already has it on Mistress! It all one piece and he already put it on! What do I do!? What do I do!?" Pepper Potts slaps the medallion on her bag and steps quickly to one side to give Fitz and Simmons time to get away, the teal and bronze of her bag starting to look less like a bag and more like a Stark suit of armor spreading itself across her torso and limbs. It takes a full eight seconds, but partway through that -- the moment one of her hands has a repulsor port on it -- she fires a shot at Delete, trying to knock that laser cannon off target enough to keep it from hitting Tony or his suit in mid-deployment. If she'd noticed Fitz and Simmons NOT getting clear like she told them, she would SO be scolding them right now. But, she's got bigger problems to deal with. Namely, Delete. The Rescue armor's faceplate clangs closed, and her electronically-modified voice calls out to Coulson, "Get the civilians clear!" Needless to say, she doesn't need his pistol so doesn't take it from him. Instead, using repulsor-based flight, she gets right up in Delete's 'face'. "HEY. You're making a mess." Rescue takes eight seconds to deploy. Tony's only takes six. Holding both hands out, he says, "I know what I'd do if I were you - Run." Iron Man starts firing at Panic, and within the helm he says, "JARVIS, get me schematics while I disassemble Johnny Five here - I wanna know who made it, how they made it, and what they made it with." "Right away sir. Beginning schematic hypothesis. Also, sir, Rescue has successfully deployed and is engaged within the manufacturing floor. Agents Coulson, Fitz, and Simmons are taking cover under a conveyor belt. There is also an unauthorized presence in the R&D labs." "Track 'em. Use the Pegasus satellite uplink to keep an eye on them." "They're .45 calibre rounds," answers Fitz. "I don't have enough to rig an EMP--" "Careful!" Simmons reaches out to snatch up the glowing capsules that Fitz ejects from that magazine. "Dendrotoxin is a dermal absorption agent!" "--that won't knock out half the borough, but--" "Break one of these open and you'll be--" Simmons stops, gasping at the transformation that is taking place around Pepper Potts. "Fitz..." She looks to Coulson. "Did you see that, Agent Coulson?" "--I think THIS..." Fitz pauses, long enough to flash score some wiring together before clamping together what seem to be a trio of tiny, bullet shaped objects and slipping them into the magazine. After slapping the magazine into the Night-Night Pistol, he offers the weapon dutifully to Coulson. "Three shots, one-thousand volts each. Triple-second burst on impact." Or so he hopes. They were fast mods, but Fitz is hoping its enough to fry those robots. "Don't waste them, sir." Agent Coulson accepts the pistol and says "Very impressive." His original plan seems currently obsolete. That's not a bad thing in this case. He takes both his conventional firearm and his new pistol and hops up on top of the conveyor belt. He fires at Delete with the Night Night Pistol. With luck, Fitz's craftsmanship will be displayed in a positive light in this weapon. Before he gets to fire either gun, a toolbox flies in his general direction. It hits him in the shoulder. He falls backwards, and lands back behind the toolbox. He mumbles and then gets back up. He might have severely damaged his shoulder, so the aim in his left arm (the one with the colt .45) is slightly shot. No pun intended. Ok, so this is getting a lot more complicated a lot faster than Button expected. After all, this was supposed to be a demonstration for some boring old corporate suits not the friggin' Iron Man himself. And sexy sidekick to boot! So Button pulls a FitzSimmons and starts running around the room grabbing parts here and there and slapping them together then taking the whole assembly and plugging it into the closest outlet. "Panic! Delete! I'm going to overload the building's electrical system. It should cause a fire that'll keep the pesky heroes busy if they don't want the whole place to blow sky high!" As soon as she's done with her jury-rigged electrical overload system she just grabs the PC she was working on, rips out all the cables from the back and flies out the window. Meanwhile, in the manufacturing floor Delete has been hit by both Rescue's repulsor rays and the high voltage ammunition from the Night-Night Pistol. Flying backwards he hits the wall and punches through it into the hallway, "Mistress! Mistress! They've ruined my targeting system! MY cannons are out of control!" And indeed they are. Laser shots are flying everywhere as the cannons randomly swivel and discharge every second or so, punching holes in ceilings, walls, and leaving gauges in the floor. Outside, Panic, dealing with only one opponent is having a slightly easier time of it. He's activated his rockets and is now flying back and forth, doing his best to avoid Iron Man's repulsor blasts while responding with his own laser blasts. The blasts that do hit him leave clear marks and start to buckle his armored outsides and Panic starts yelling again. "MISTRESS! If he keeps hitting me I will be in critical condition within five minutes. One of my quantum dot arrays is already out, power production is down to 90%!" To which Button replies, "Active your evasive maneuver protocols, sacrifice offensive capabilities if necessary!" Rescue chases after Delete, her focus currently on getting those laser cannons to stop firing randomly. She uses that small red-laser cutter to try and slice through one of the cannons to stop it, even if that means having to stay still for a little more time than is likely wise. "Tony? Are you okay? Did Coulson, Simmons, and Fitz make it out of the building safely?" Iron Man takes to the skies after Panic, he starts dogfighting the robot. "No, they're still in there under a conveyor belt. Well, Coulson's not but I think he just took a toolbox to the knee or something. I'm reading an electrical surge going through the building, though. We may have to break off and do some crowd control so the building doesn't go up like a Roman candle." As the building's lights and outlets start to spark, Fitz and Simmons decide its time to make a run for it! They go running toward the entrance, Fitz towing both Simmons and his case in either hand as they go. Agent Coulson is satisfied with the Night Night pistol. He should see if Fitz could build a better version and get on the arsenal. He shouts out "Everybody, we need you to evacuate!" He says "Line up, and head towards the exit! Do not panic!" Some of the citizens begin to line up. He keeps his weapons unholstered, however. He doesn't want them to get attacked. They all proceed to move towards the exit. Rescue's laser cutter does start making it through one of the laser cannon, enough at least to stop its functioning even if it doesn't take it completely off. But she does stand still long enough for Delete to take a swing at her with one massive fist, which makes it a very good thing that the young woman is wearing a Stark manufactured suit of armor. Right as the swing is coming at her Rescue might be able to hear Button through Delete's commlink, "We're out of here boys! Fire up the rockets and vamoose. I have what we came for." As soon as he hears the command from Button Delete turns and starts running, his systems finally starting to compensate enough for the jolt of electricity from Fitz' ammo to at least shut down the non-damaged laser cannon. The same message can be heard through Panic's commlink if Iron Man happens to be flying close enough which is quickly followed by Panic tossing what looks like a 40MM grenade at Tony. except that when it explodes it covered a large area of the sky in a combination of smoke and electrically charged chaff, an obvious and high tech attempt to disrupt communications and sensors to give the robot a chance to run away. Button herself is a small, black streak in the sky as her boots silently propel her out a window and up into the air with a computer tower that's almost half as big as she is hugged tightly to her chest. Rescue gets the warning on her HUD of one of Delete's hands aiming to slam into her side so she tries to throw herself clear, and as luck would have it, it's at the same time that Delete gets the go-ahead to turn and run. She lands on the manufacturing floor not entirely steadily, but then JARVIS start flashing warning about the electrical overload about to happen and she turns to look hastily. "JARVIS, where's the main power inlet for this building?" And then she's off. If she kills the power into the building, she can stop the overload. "The main power junction box is located on the south side of the building. I've highlighted it for you." the AI responds helpfully, giving Pepper a waypoint to get to where the power box is. Meanwhile, Tony is in no danger of getting consumed by the cloud. Indeed if he chose to, he could fly around it and get to Panic anyway. But he doesn't. "JARVIS, tag 'em and track 'em. I suspect whoever the waif is, she took off with some kind of sensitive information. Those robotic goons of hers actually function, so I'm not suspecting Hammer. Start going through LexCorp's and Osbourne's databases for possible reference. Take what's public domain. Hack what isn't and have it ready for me at the Tower on my secure server. If I can't find answers there, I'll hand it off to Oracle and tell her to burn it all down." He flips in mid-air, and heads back to the building. "We got people to get outta here. Fitz and Simmons are already out. Gimme a lock on Coulson and any employees still trapped inside." Okay, so maybe that legal pad in his head is different now, but the spirit remains the same. Coulson leads the people out of the building. One he feels they're at a safe distance, he says "Alright, folks. Now, I want you to do a headcount. Is everyone here?". They look about. Yup, everyone's here. Coulson nods and says "Alright then! City police will be taking over from here. Does anyone have a phone?" One of the citizens proceeds to call 911. Coulson nods and says "Alright. Now, if you don't mind me asking, can SHIELD have access to your superconductors?". The citizens seem to agree. In fact, one of them even offers a discount. Rescue makes a dash for that main power junction box, really hoping she gets there in time. One thing's for sure, she doesn't try for subtlety or finesse. The moment she's within arm's reach she grabs onto the main power conduit leading into the building and lets her momentum yank it free. That's one way to cut power to that overload circuit. Of course, it probably also caused the rest of the block to lose power as well from the feedback, but... semantics. "I think I managed to stop the overload," she tells Tony over their comlink. From this point it's pretty much just dealing with the local authorities, and Pepper can totally handle that. She lets Tony flee as quickly as he wants and stays with Coulson (and Fitz and Simmons most likely), trusting the SHIELD agent and techies to give her a lift home. Iron Man lands, disengages the suit and hangs out. The meeting has been cancelled, but Tony puts in a sizable order for all four kinds. He'll find something to do with them, of course. Maybe He'll festoon them around the bots back in the lab. He basically sticks around to calm down folks that were inside - you'd be surprised how chill get when you take a selfie with them or sign a napkin. It's not a big deal, really. Besides, the only other thing on his docket today is lunch and an afternoon meeting. What else could possibly happen? Category:Log